Tribe Gives No. 5 Georgetown a Battle in Loss

Senior Laimis Kisielius led the Tribe with 16 points against the Hoyas.

11/10/07 4:00PM

Washington, D.C. - The William and Mary men’s basketball program showed it has the ability to compete with the top teams in the country despite falling to No. 5 Georgetown, 68-53, on Saturday afternoon. The final margin was not indicative of how tight the contest really was, as the College led for a good portion of the first half and trailed by only two with fewer than 10 minutes remaining.

Senior Laimis Kisielius led the way for the Tribe with 16 points, all in the first half. Sophomore guard David Schneider turned in another impressive all-around game with 14 points to go along with team-highs in rebounds (7), assists (4) and steals (2). He also connected on 4-of-8 from 3-point range. Senior guard Nathan Mann equaled Schneider for team-high rebounding honors with seven, while adding eight points.

The Tribe jumped on top early, scoring the opening five points of the contest. Kisielius knocked down a jumper in the lane, before Mann pulled down an offensive rebound and found Schneider for an open 3-point field goal. The Hoyas answered with a quick seven-point spurt of their own, including the final four tallies on free throws.

With the game tied at 10, the Hoyas connected on back-to-back treys from DaJuan Summers and Jon Wallace to take its largest advantage of the opening half at 16-10. W&M would answer a short time later with an 11-2 run to garner a four-point cushion, 24-20, with 9:55 remaining.

The Tribe scored seven straight points and retook the lead at 20-18. Senior Kyle Carrabine knocked down a trey from the top of the key, before Kisielius scored back-to-back buckets. After Hibbert converted in the post to knot the score at 20, Schneider hit his third trey of the opening half off a dish from junior forward Peter Stein. Kisielius went 1-of-2 from the charity stripe following a technical foul on Georgetown head coach John Thompson III to give W&M the 24-20 lead.

Georgetown responded once again with five straight points to capture the lead, 25-24, following a conventional 3-point play from Hibbert. A Chris Darnell lay-up off a dish from Stein gave W&M a 28-27 cushion with five minutes remaining in the opening half. The Hoyas grabbed the momentum heading into the locker room as they scored eight of the final 10 points of the opening half. A Wallace 3-pointer with 26 seconds remaining capped the first-half scoring as GU went to the locker room with a 35-30 advantage.

Less than a minute into the second half, the Hoyas pushed the ball to Hibbert in the post and the Preseason All-American gave Georgetown its largest lead to that point at seven. W&M would not go quietly though as the College responded with five straight points all from Mann to cut the deficit to 37-35.

After the GU lead reach six following a Hibbert bucket, the College again pulled to within a single possession, following an athletic play from Danny Sumner. The sophomore wing’s tip-in cut the GU lead to 45-42 with 12:31 remaining. The College had four possessions trailing by three points, but could not score the game-tying hoop.

Mann and Schneider both had 3-point attempts over the stretch, but the chances came up short. Schneider would drill his fourth 3-pointer with 9:48 remaining to cut the GU lead to 47-45, but the Hoyas answered with their All-America center. Hibbert scored on back-to-back possessions to push the lead back to six. The College could get no closer than five the rest of the way as Georgetown went on a 17-4 run over a five minute stretch to put the game out of reach.

The Tribe connected on nine 3-point field goals on the afternoon. W&M took care of the basketball dishing out 13 assists compared to only 11 turnovers. The College attempted 33 shot from beyond the 3-point arc, which came just short of the school record. The school mark for 3-pointers attempted in a game is 37 at George Mason on Jan. 24, 1996.

The College returns to action against it second straight top-25 foe in No. 21/24 North Carolina State on Thursday, Nov. 15. The game is slated for a 7 p.m. tip-off in Raleigh. It will mark the sixth time in school history and the first time since the 1983-84 season that W&M has battled back-to-back nationally ranked foes.

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